News from Reaching Heights

Contact: Susie Kaeser, Executive Director, Reaching Heights

216- 932-5110

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The public is invited to a community forum, School Funding in Ohio , It's

Broken- Can We Fix It? Wednesday, September 29, 2004 at 7:15 PM at the Cleveland

Heights Community Center , 1 Monticello Boulevard (at Mayfield Road ). This free forum, open to all, will provide an overview of our state's current system of funding, elements that are problematic, and proposals for reform.

School funding expert James Van Keuren, former Assistant Superintendent for Finance for the Ohio Department of Education will describe key features of Ohio 's school funding system. Dan Wilson, Chief Financial Officer of the Mentor Exempted Village Schools, will describe current proposals to reform the funding system. A panel of elected officials and public school advocates, moderated by Steve Bullock, will respond to the presentations and comment on the prospects for change.

Panelists include State Senator C.J. Prentiss; Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness, United Church of Christ; John Ryan, Executive Secretary of the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor; and Mayor Georgine Welo of South Euclid.

Cleveland Heights Mayor Edward Kelley, one of the event organizers will welcome the audience. “We want citizens and elected officials to come away with a clearer understanding of the complex funding system that sends communities to the polls every few years to try to maintain their school programs. We need to find a better way for all of our communities. Schools are so important to the health of every community,” said Mayor Kelley.

Forum sponsors are the First Suburbs Consortium; the City of Cleveland Heights ; Reaching Heights , the Cleveland Heights –University Heights Public Schools Foundation; and EcoCity Cleveland. For more information concerning this forum, call Reaching Heights at 216-932-5110.